Michael Forsyth: SNP dream of Scottish independence in Europe is a 'cruel lie'

The SNP’s claim that Scotland can be independent while in the EU is a “cruel lie” as “unelected” bureaucrats in Brussels would have the final say over the laws passed at Holyrood, a former Tory Scottish Secretary is expected to argue.

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean is to state that the SNP must be the first nationalist movement in history “campaigning for their country to be subject to the diktat of an unelected supra national bureaucracy.”

But Lord Campbell of Pittenweem, the former Liberal Democrat leader, is to warn Eurosceptic pensioners that voting to leave the EU could rob their children and grandchildren of the decades of “peace, prosperity and security” they have enjoyed.

He will say that overwhelming support among Scots to stay in Europe in the June 23 referendum could be the difference in the UK remaining an EU member state, if there is “narrow” support for Brexit in England.

The two elder statesmen are speaking in separate events on Thursday night after Nicola Sturgeon this week restated that she intends to campaign to remain in the EU.

However, she has faced outspoken criticism from Jim Sillars, the SNP’s former deputy leader, who has argued there was “no sense” in leaving the UK only to “surrender” power to another political union in Brussels.

Lord Forsyth was Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth in 1997Credit:
PA

Speaking to a Vote Leave rally at the Albert Halls in Stirling, Lord Forsyth is expected to say that Mr Sillars invented the SNP’s policy of “Independence in Europe” but now “ridicules the notion” and described it as “a cruel lie.”

The peer, who as Michael Forsyth was Scottish Secretary between 1995 and 1997 in John Major’s Government, will even claim the Declaration of Arbroath as a source of inspiration for the Brexit campaign.

Quoting from the document, the 1320 declaration of Scottish independence, he will say: “We fight not for riches nor honour nor glory but for freedom alone which no honest man surrenders but with his life.”

He will say the SNP government could not introduce alcohol minimum pricing even when it had a majority because it was “overruled” by the European Court of Justice.

“The Scottish Government is of no consequence in Brussels, which now accounts for more than half our laws and regulations,” he will add.

Lord Campbell will argue that people over 60 have enjoyed decades of peace since the creation of the EU and more likely to vote in next month’s referendum, but polls indicate around two-thirds back Brexit.

Speaking at an Edinburgh University debate with Tom Harris, the former Labour MP and Scottish Vote Leave director, he will say that younger Scots risk losing the freedom to travel, work and study in Europe because they will be outnumbered by older Eurosceptics at the ballot box.

The peer, who as Menzies Campbell led the Lib Dems between 2006 and 2007, will say: “To our older people I say, think of your children and grandchildren when casting your vote, and what kind of world you want to bequeath to them.”